Architectural History Vocabulary

Question 1

Tumulus

Answer 1

Mound of earth and stones raised over a grave

Question 2

Name of western north africa

Answer 2

Maghrab

Question 3

Cairn

Answer 3

Pile of stones

Question 4

Chambered Cairn

Answer 4

Neolithic Burial monument such as found in Scotland and Orkney Islands: the Maeslowe Group, ca. 2700 BCE

Question 5

Menhir

Answer 5

A single standing stone

Question 6

Dolmen

Answer 6

Single chamber tomb, 2 or more vertical monoliths supporting a capstone usually covered with earth or stones to form a “Tumulus.”

Question 7

Megaron

Answer 7

Rectangular space with a door on the short wall in a Minoan or Mycenean palace

Question 8

Domos

Answer 8

(Greek) House with entrance on short wall

Question 9

Prodomos

Answer 9

(Greek) antiroom to a domos

Question 10

Tholos

Answer 10

round tomb with vaulted ceiling

Question 11

Dromos

Answer 11

(Greek) Entrance way to a Tholos

Question 12

Corbel

Answer 12

stacking of stone to gradually close up at the top

Question 13

Citadel

Answer 13

protective enclosure of a palace or city

Question 14

Cyclopean masonry

Answer 14

(Greek) Large irregular stones dry set to form a wall

Question 15

Polygonal masonry

Answer 15

(Greek) Large stones cut into polygons and carefully fitted together without mortar

Question 16

Acanthus

Answer 16

(Greek) perennial plant with leaves with delicate edges that was used as an inspiration for Greek Corinthian order column capital design

Question 17

In antis

Answer 17

(Greek) columns located between the ends of walls

Question 18

Acroteria

Answer 18

(Greek) sculptural figures at the top of a roof

Question 19

Naos

Answer 19

(Greek) The major enclosed space in a temple

Question 20

Cella

Answer 20

The main chamber of a Greek or Roman temple in the Naos, built to house the cult statue

Question 21

Peristyle

Answer 21

(Greek) the colonnade around a peripteral building or around a court

Question 22

Peripteral

Answer 22

(Greek) an adjective describing a building with a colonnade around its entire perimeter

Question 23

Intercolumniation

Answer 23

The space between two adjacent columns

Question 24

Stereobate

Answer 24

(Greek) a solid mass of masonry serving as the visible base of a building, especially a Greek temple. In a Greek temple only the lower steps are called the stereobate; the top step, on which the columns rest, is called the stylobate

Question 25

stylobate

Answer 25

(Greek) the top step in a Greek Temple on which the columns (Styles) are set

Question 26

Entasis

Answer 26

(Greek) The swelling convex curvature along the line of taper of classical columns

Question 27

Echinus

Answer 27

(Greek) In the Doric order, the quarter round molding beneath the abacus of a capital

Question 28

Abacus

Answer 28

the uppermost part of a capital, forming a slab upon which the architrave rests

Question 29

Entablature

Answer 29

(Greek) the group of horizontal member resting on the columns of the one of the classical orders. It is divided into three parts: architrave, frieze, and cornice

Question 30

Architrave

Answer 30

(Greek) the lowest member of an entablature, resting directly on the columns.

Question 31

Frieze

Answer 31

(Greek) the middle member of an entablature, between the architrave and cornice

Question 32

Triglyph

Answer 32

(Greek) in the frieze of the entablature of the Doric order, the vertical blocks, which are divided by channels into three sections

Question 33

Metope

Answer 33

(Greek) in the frieze of an entablature of the Doric order, one of the panels between the triglyphs, sometimes ornamented

Question 34

Cornice

Answer 34

(Greek) the topmost part of a classical entablature

Question 35

Pediment

Answer 35

(Greek) In classical architecture, the low-pitched gable, or triangular area formed by the two slopes of the low-pitched roof of a temple, framed by the horizontal and raking cornices and sometimes filled with sculpture

Question 36

Orders

Answer 36

an architectural “order” is one of the classical systems of carefully proportioned and interdependent parts which include column and entablature:

Doric: the oldest and simplest of the orders

Ionic: is more slender and lighter order than the Doric

Corinthian: developed later than the Doric or Ionic. It is distinguished from the Ionic by its capital formed of a circular belle of rows of acanthus leaves

Question 37

Mesopotamia

Answer 37

“land between the waters” (Tigris and Euphrates (modern day Iraq)

Question 38

Lamassu

Answer 38

an Assyrian protective deity, often depicted as having a human’s head, a body of an ox or a lion, and bird’s wing

Question 39

Sphinx

Answer 39

sculpture or painting which depicts a figure with the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face and breast of a woman. Those who cannot answer her riddle are gobbled up whole and raw, eaten by this ravenous monster. The riddle of the Sphinx: “What walks with four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening?”

Question 40

Obelisk

Answer 40

single tall stone with a pyramidal top, the sides covered with heiroglyphs

Question 41

Mastaba

Answer 41

A flat-topped structure built of mud-brick or stone to cover a tomb